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A review by melanie_reads
Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation by Tom Bissell
2.0
Coronavirus book review #9 – 2 stars
UGH, Tom Bissell is a load. The Jeff Daniels Escanaba in da Moonlight essay had me going for a bit. The big city nostalgia for small towns that aren’t intended for the small town people they glamorize and the angry mean lady at the end who snickers at you snickering at her snickering at you is on point. BUT ….
I’m with King Wenclas. There absolutely needs to be literature beyond the coastal literary centers. Name drop much, Bissell? Have beef with the fact that Bukowski was an alcoholic and worked at the post office like your average American … what, he wasn’t a striver like you? You've even managed to sour me on McSweeney's.
And the absolute worst, during an interview with Werner Herzog, Bissell points out a minor continuity error in one of Herzog’s movies. You are the poster child for mean-spirted. Then you have the nerve to pretend you’re surprised that annoyed him? And while I’m at it, you said he was wearing biscuit-colored pants. Seriously.
There’s a part of me that hopes you cringe when you read these essays by your younger self. They reek with immaturity. And those hundred-dollar words you throw around like candy? Nobody is impressed.
This is exactly why Middle America hates New Yorkers and Californians. For the record, I lived in LA for 25 years. Maybe I was once like you.
UGH, Tom Bissell is a load. The Jeff Daniels Escanaba in da Moonlight essay had me going for a bit. The big city nostalgia for small towns that aren’t intended for the small town people they glamorize and the angry mean lady at the end who snickers at you snickering at her snickering at you is on point. BUT ….
I’m with King Wenclas. There absolutely needs to be literature beyond the coastal literary centers. Name drop much, Bissell? Have beef with the fact that Bukowski was an alcoholic and worked at the post office like your average American … what, he wasn’t a striver like you? You've even managed to sour me on McSweeney's.
And the absolute worst, during an interview with Werner Herzog, Bissell points out a minor continuity error in one of Herzog’s movies. You are the poster child for mean-spirted. Then you have the nerve to pretend you’re surprised that annoyed him? And while I’m at it, you said he was wearing biscuit-colored pants. Seriously.
There’s a part of me that hopes you cringe when you read these essays by your younger self. They reek with immaturity. And those hundred-dollar words you throw around like candy? Nobody is impressed.
This is exactly why Middle America hates New Yorkers and Californians. For the record, I lived in LA for 25 years. Maybe I was once like you.